In early December I met with the good folks at KCPT-TV and proposed creating a feature documentary on the 2007 mayor’s race in Kansas City, Missouri. As we all agreed, it had the makings of the best mayor’s race ever, perhaps anywhere.

As I wrote in the proposal, “My thesis is essentially this: For all its flaws, there is no purer or more inspiring example of democracy at work than a mayoral race in a prototypical city like Kansas City with a wonderfully diverse field of perhaps eleven candidates, at least six or more whom are entirely viable and none of whom has anything like a lock on the race.”

Alas, we were unable to muster the needed funding for the documentary, but the thesis remains valid. As we approach mid-February, just two weeks before the primary election on the 27th, an undaunted dozen, a veritable bomber’s crew from central casting, remains in the hunt.

Eleven of these candidates are serious and could serve more or less credibly as mayor. Five of them, all largely skeleton free, still have a realistic shot at winning the whole enchilada. But just two of them will face off in the March 27 general election.

Indeed, the field is sufficiently strong that if either current mayor Kay Barnes or her 1999 general election opponent George Blackwood brought those same credentials into the 2007 fray, they would not be among the top four or five contenders.

Restaurateur Stan Glazer, who netted 43% of the vote in the 2003 election, will likely not finish among the top five either, despite a strong message, a refurbished reputation, and the best stage presence of the twelve.

The Confident 

Barring the unforeseen—and it would have to be something dreadful—city councilman Alvin Brooks will pull the most votes in the primary. Brooks has been on the Kansas City scene for quite some time. Indeed, he has been married for 56 years to wife Carol—longer than many of his competitors have been alive. Still, despite all that time in the trenches, he has made impressively few enemies.

Although Brooks began his career as a police officer, he achieved his highest level of visibility as founder of the grass roots organization Ad Hoc Group Against Crime. If you thought the first President Bush’s “Thousand Points of Light” was a mere figure of speech, you have not met Mr. Brooks. He is one of the points. For the eight years he has served on the city council, he has also enjoyed the honorarium, “mayor pro tem.”

As to his vision, Brooks is stressing education and its effect on crime. He does not, however, believe in vouchers or the deconstruction of the Kansas City School District.

Brooks right now faces the challenge of high expectations. If he pulls less than 25-30% in the primary, he will be considered altogether vulnerable in the general election in late March. His central city base remains solid—political pros expect him to pull 90% plus from the black community—and he is sincere in making “inclusiveness” a major part of his presentation.

But neither yard signs on Ward Parkway nor endorsement by the KC Pride Democratic Club—the city’s “largest” LGBT (look it up) political club—are proof enough of city-wide appeal to intimidate his opposition.

The Resigned

Barring the unforeseen—and here we’re talking something very much like divine intervention—the candidates that follow will not make it to the general election. The beautiful thing is that they continue to campaign as if they will.

On paper, Janice Ellis looks like a winner. The president and CEO of Partnership for Children, Ellis is well-credentialed, well-connected, and hip enough to have an Ellis for Mayor presence on myspace.com. That much said, her campaign simply hasn’t found its footing. Her opponents had hoped she would take a bite out of Brooks’ central city bloc, but that bite is looking more like a nibble.

South Kansas City councilman Chuck Eddy has had an unexpected cross to bear from the day his campaign began, namely a large and excruciatingly visible “Anyone But Chuck Eddy” banner on Ward Parkway. Eddy believes it to be the handiwork of someone who objected to his anti-smoking activism, obviously in an extra long kind of way.